Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder is an American film maker who has produced more than 30 films in his lifetime. Three films in particular though have caught critic’s eyes everywhere. Double Indemnity, made in 1944, The Seven Year Itch, made in 1955, and Some like it hot, made in 1959. Billy Wilder’s style in his films could be described as comic in most of his films but some of them like Double Indemnity could be described as dark as it is a film noir. Over the decades Billy Wilder’s films do improves in style. In his earlier film Double Indemnity Wilder uses Black and white film instead of color film. Since Double Indemnity is a film noir, the black and white really helps with the shadows of the films and to better portray the film noir aspect. Most of the characters in Wilder's films are self-centered and lying to someone. It happened in Some like it Hot when they were lying about being girls and again in The Seven Year Itch when he didn’t think about his wife when he had the girl over, smoke, and drank. But even though Wilder's…

In 1992, Billy Wilder’s 1944 film Double Indemnity was preserved by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It is clear that the film has had a major impact in cinema but it was created to protest Los Angeles but suffered many hurdles to complete. However, Double Indemnity would effectively jump start the noir movement and influence cinema to this day. When Double Indemnity was first played in theaters audiences and critics reacted in shock…

Even though film experts still debate what genre it best falls into, the 1950 Billy Wilder-directed film Sunset Boulevard is, in many respects, the archetypal film noir, and is also widely regarded as one of the most brutally honest depictions of Hollywood, by Hollywood. One of the biggest reasons Wilder’s film is viewed as such an exemplar of the film noir movement is its innovative use of lighting effects. Use of lighting can make or break a black-and-white film much more than it can one in…

components: lighting, camera angles, and composition. Over the course of 107 thrilling minutes, Walter Neff becomes a whole new person due to his relationship with Phyllis. In his film Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder uses cinematography to demonstrate the progression of Walter Neff’s character from a seemingly innocent insurance agent to a criminal. In the beginning of the film, Walter Neff is viewed as a happy and confident insurance agent, and immediately becomes the protagonist in the movie.…

often used to display the effect people have on other’s realities and beliefs. In Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder and King Lear by William Shakespeare, complex characters are used to demonstrate how permissive relationships can create the false reality and ultimate madness one may endure. In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond experiences a sheltered life that leads to a state of insanity. While much of this insanity comes from her own state of mind, her butler, Max, is the main enabler of her…

Violence against a character is essential in developing a character. Violence is often portrayed in film through intense chase scenes or messy breakups. In The Apartment, Billy Wilder develops Fran Kubelik and Mr. Sheldrake by using relational violence. While meeting for Christmas Eve, Mr. Sheldrake is a lousy date, only giving Fran a one-hundred-dollar bill as a gift; however, Fran gifts him a record of Sheldrake’s favorite song, which had been played on an earlier date; it is a meaningful…

The Apartment Film has a specific structure that creates meaning out of a series of photographs. This structure uses a specific language to create a narrative that the spectator should be able to understand. Christian Metz believes that through denotation a stronger meaning can be derived from the connotation. The study of connotation is that it is always symbolic in its nature, while denotation is the literal sense of the film. Connotative meaning should extend over the denotative meaning…

Connections Everybody has the ability to be manipulative.Manipulative people latch onto empathetic targets and make full use of their qualities. They find people who are easy-going, gentle and kind and who avoid conflict. Throughout the films double indemnity directed by Billy Wilder, nightcrawler directed by dan Gilroy, LA confidential directed by Curtis Hanson and training day directed by Antoine Fuqua, we find that these films have a strong theme of manipulation occurring. This…

Professor Bernstein explained that he was a fan of Billy Wilder movies, and especially Sunset Boulevard. He also recommended that I watch The Sting, which I have now added to my watchlist on IMDb. I told the professor that a couple of my favorite films are The Social Network and The Shawshank Redemption. He agreed that both of these movies told excellent stories, and he even said that he was on the Harvard campus when Mark Zuckerberg crashed the campus servers with Facesmash. When I was…

“Flesh impact, her face was her fortune as much as her voluptuous figure. The luminosity of her face!” (billy wilder). Her image was sometimes considered as sexual greed and postwar male expectations. Her sexuality and VULNERABILITY originally gave her an image. “Half child, but not the part that shows.” “dangerous” sexuality in her acting. “Dumb blonde” transcended her image in some of her first movies. Her nude images of the cover of calendars and magazines gave the world an inside look at…